WASHINGTON — Sophia Nyazi’s husband, Milad, shook her awake at 8 a.m. “ICE is right here,” he instructed her.
Three uniformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers had been downstairs on the household’s house on Lengthy Island, N.Y., on Tuesday, in line with a video reviewed by The Instances that she captured from atop the staircase.
Nyazi stated the brokers requested whether or not her husband was making use of for a inexperienced card. They instructed her they must detain him due to the capturing of two Nationwide Guard members per week earlier in Washington, D.C.
“He has nothing to do with that capturing,” Nyazi, 27, recalled answering. “We don’t even know that individual.”
Her protests didn’t matter. The Trump administration has put into movement a broad and unprecedented set of coverage adjustments aimed toward considerably limiting authorized immigration avenues, together with for immigrants lengthy thought-about probably the most weak.
Sadly, I feel the administration took this one very tragic incident and politicized it as a option to shut down even authorized immigration
— Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, of the American Immigration Attorneys Assn.
Milad Nyazi, 28, was detained as a result of, like the person charged within the capturing which left one Nationwide Guard member lifeless, he’s from Afghanistan.
The administration has paused choices on all functions filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers, or USCIS, by individuals searching for asylum. The visa and immigration functions of Afghans, whom the U.S. had welcomed in 2021 because it pulled all troops from the nation, have been halted.
Officers additionally froze the processing of immigration circumstances of individuals from 19 international locations the administration considers “high-risk” and can conduct case-by-case evaluations of inexperienced playing cards and different immigration advantages given to individuals from these international locations since former President Biden took workplace in 2021.
Immigration attorneys say they discovered that dozens of naturalization ceremonies and interviews for inexperienced playing cards are being canceled for immigrants from Haiti, Iran, Guinea and different international locations on the listing.
In a few circumstances, immigration officers instructed immigrants that that they had been ready to grant a inexperienced card, however had been unable to take action due to the brand new steering, stated Gregory Chen, authorities relations director at American Immigration Attorneys Assn.
Though it’s unclear precisely how many individuals could possibly be affected by the brand new guidelines, 1.5 million immigrants have asylum circumstances pending with USCIS.
“These are sweeping adjustments that precise collective punishment on a large swath of people who find themselves attempting to do issues the best means,” stated Amanda Baran, former chief of coverage and technique at USCIS beneath the Biden administration. “I fear about all of the individuals who have dutifully filed functions and whose lives are actually on maintain.”
Administration officers known as the Nov. 26 capturing a “terrorist assault” and defended the adjustments as needed to guard the nation. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, faces prices stemming from the capturing that killed Military Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Air Pressure Workers Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.
“The safety of this nation and of the American individuals stays paramount, and the American individuals is not going to bear the price of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement insurance policies,” Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, stated in a message posted Nov. 27 on X. “American security is non-negotiable.”
Lakanwal pleaded not responsible final week and his motive stays beneath investigation. In Afghanistan, he served in a counterterrorism unit operated by the CIA.
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 by way of a Biden administration program that resettled almost 200,000 Afghans within the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, officers stated. He utilized for asylum in December 2024 and it was permitted beneath the Trump administration in April, in line with a press release by the nonprofit #AfghanEvac.
Afghans who labored with U.S. troops had been believed to face hazard if left behind beneath the Taliban-run authorities. Together with present process routine safety screening, they submitted to further “rigorous” vetting, which included biometric and biographic checks by counterterrorism and intelligence professionals, the Division of Homeland Safety stated on the time.
Two federal experiences from 2024 and this yr pointed to some failings of the screening, together with knowledge inaccuracies and the presence of 55 evacuees who had been later recognized on terrorism watch lists, although the latter report famous that the FBI had then adopted all required processes to mitigate any potential menace.
It’s unclear precisely how the administration will perform evaluations of 1000’s of people that already dwell legally within the U.S. The federal authorities can’t simply strip individuals of everlasting authorized standing. The specter of reopening circumstances, nevertheless, has sparked alarm in immigrant communities throughout the nation.
About 58,600 Afghan immigrants name California house as of 2023, excess of some other state, in line with the Migration Coverage Institute. Interviews with a dozen area people advocates, immigration attorneys and members of the family of these detained paint an aggressive effort by the federal authorities to spherical up current Afghan immigrants within the wake of the D.C. capturing.
“Sadly, I feel the administration took this one very tragic incident and politicized it as a option to shut down even authorized immigration. And it’s positively gone a lot broader than the Afghan neighborhood,” stated Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, the director of presidency relations on the American Immigration Attorneys Assn.
Trump administration officers cited the capturing in a spate of coverage adjustments final week.
On Friday, USCIS introduced it had established a brand new heart to strengthen screening with supplemental evaluations of immigration functions, partially utilizing synthetic intelligence. The USCIS Vetting Middle, primarily based in Atlanta, will “centralize enhanced vetting of aliens and permit the company to reply extra nimbly to adjustments in a shifting menace panorama,” the company stated.
On Thursday, USCIS stated work permits granted to immigrants would expire after 18 months, not 5 years. The change contains work permits for these admitted as refugees, with pending inexperienced card functions and with pending asylum functions.
In a memorandum Tuesday outlining the pause on asylum functions and the immigration circumstances of individuals from the 19 international locations additionally topic to a journey ban, USCIS acknowledged that the adjustments might end in processing delays however had decided it was “needed and applicable” when weighed “towards the company’s obligation to guard and protect nationwide safety.”
Immigrants already had been on excessive alert because the Trump administration canceled momentary humanitarian applications, in the reduction of refugee admissions — apart from a restricted variety of white South African Afrikaners — and elevated makes an attempt to ship these with deportation orders to international locations the place they haven’t any private connection.
Earlier than the Washington capturing, a Nov. 21 memo confirmed that the administration deliberate to evaluation the circumstances of greater than 200,000 refugees admitted beneath the Biden administration. Though asylum seekers apply after arriving within the U.S., refugees apply for admission from outdoors the nation.
Nyazi questioned why Afghans are being singled out, noting {that a} white individual allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk, however “I don’t see any ICE brokers going into white individuals’s homes.”
Requested why Milad Nyazi was detained, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant public affairs secretary for Homeland Safety, known as him a prison, citing two arrests on suspicion of home violence.
“Underneath Secretary [Kristi] Noem, DHS has been going full throttle on figuring out and arresting identified or suspected terrorists and prison unlawful aliens that got here in by way of Biden’s fraudulent parole applications and dealing to get the criminals and public security threats OUT of our nation,” McLaughlin stated in a press release.
Nyazi stated the fees, which didn’t stem from incidents of bodily violence, had been dropped and his report was later expunged.
She and her husband acquired engaged in 2019 in Afghanistan and utilized for a fiance visa, as a result of Nyazi is a U.S. citizen. Their utility was permitted in 2021. Quickly after, with the Taliban takeover in full drive, the U.S. authorities allowed Milad Nyazi to fly to the U.S. He has a pending inexperienced card utility, Nyazi stated.
On Tuesday, the couple’s 3-year-old daughter screamed and cried as her father was handcuffed and brought away. He has a court docket listening to this week.
Zahra Billoo, government director of the San Francisco Bay Space chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and others say Afghans in varied levels of their authorized immigration course of — not solely these with deportation orders — have been focused. She stated a minimum of 17 Afghans within the Bay Space have been detained since Monday.
Attorneys stated most of the Afghans detained final week had arrived on the U.S.-Mexico border, the place that they had sought asylum.
Paris Etemadi Scott, authorized director of the Pars Equality Middle in San José, stated three of her shoppers, an Afghan mom and her two sons who’re each of their early 20s, had been detained Dec. 1 throughout a routine check-in with ICE. All have pending asylum functions, she stated.
Rebecca Olszewski, managing legal professional on the Michigan Immigrant Rights Middle, stated her Afghan consumer, who additionally has a pending asylum case, reported for his month-to-month digital check-in Friday and was instructed to indicate up in individual the subsequent day, the place he was detained.
Because the capturing, administration officers and the president have used dehumanizing language to explain immigrants. In asserting the 19-country journey ban Dec. 1, Noem posted on X that she was recommending a “a full journey ban on each rattling nation that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
In a Cupboard assembly the subsequent day, Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “rubbish” who “contribute nothing.” (A number of days later, Noem stated the administration would broaden the journey ban to greater than 30 international locations.)
On Thanksgiving Day, Trump had stated on his social media platform that he intends to “completely pause migration from all Third World International locations” and deport those that are “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
In current days, a ghostly quiet has overtaken Shafiullah Hotak’s common haunts in North Sacramento, the place the Afghan inhabitants within the metropolis is very dense. Hotak, 38, is an Afghan immigrant who served as a program supervisor at refugee resettlement group Lao Household Neighborhood Improvement till layoffs because of federal cuts compelled him out of labor in Could.
On Thursday, immigration brokers banged on doorways at an condominium advanced on Marconi Avenue, the place tons of of Afghans have resettled. Only one worker sat in an Afghan-owned tax and bookkeeping enterprise that was usually buzzing with shoppers. A close-by park, the place youngsters kick round soccer balls and guffawing packs of kids roam after college, was empty. And the traces at a halal market identified for its sesame-topped Afghan bread had disappeared.
“The state of affairs we now have in our neighborhood jogs my memory of after we used to go to work in Afghanistan,” Hotak stated. “We needed to take totally different routes on daily basis as a result of individuals who had been towards the U.S. mission in Afghanistan had been focusing on individuals. There have been bombings and shootings.”
Hotak stated “Kill the eyes,” is what the enemies of the U.S. in Afghanistan used to advise as to how one can take care of native Afghans aiding the navy, in an effort to blind their operations.
“However these days these ‘eyes’ are right here within the U.S. and the U.S. authorities is seeking to decide them up and put them in jail,” Hotak stated.
Instances workers writers Castillo reported from Washington and Hussain and Uranga from Los Angeles.
